Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment has been used to heat, cool, and ventilate buildings and other enclosed spaces where people live and work. Air conditioning units have been used to provide cooling in the summer months. In addition, furnaces have been packaged separately and with air conditioning units and the furnaces have been operated in the winter months to provide heating. Furthermore, condensing furnaces have been used to reduce consumption of fossil fuels (e.g., natural gas or propane) burned in furnaces to provide heating. Condensing gas furnaces, however, have typically been located indoors. In such installations, condensate was typically drained into a sewer in a conventional manner. Many buildings, however, are configured to have an HVAC unit installed on the roof of the building or on the ground outside the building. In the past, such applications have typically not permitted use of a condensing furnace because condensate from the furnace would freeze when local ambient temperatures were below freezing. Frozen condensate would interfere with continued operation of the unit, collect causing a hazard or nuisance, or a combination thereof.
A number of reasons exist to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. These reasons may include, as examples, reducing fuel bills for the building owner, reducing greenhouse gas (e.g., carbon dioxide) production, reducing emissions of traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen, reducing dependency on limited fossil fuel reserves, reducing dependency on foreign sources of fossil fuels, reducing environmental damage and risk associated with extraction of fossil fuels, and qualifying for government incentives designed to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. Since many buildings are configured for HVAC units that are located outdoors, conversion of outdoor gas package units to condensing gas package units has the potential to significantly reduce consumption of fossil fuels. Consequently, needs or potential for benefit exist for equipment, apparatuses, and methods that allow condensing gas furnaces to be installed and used outdoors. In particular, needs or potential for benefit exist for equipment, apparatuses, and methods that prevent problems that result from the freezing of condensate from condensing furnaces that are installed outdoors. Needs or potential for benefit exist for equipment, apparatuses, and methods that prevent frozen condensate from interfering with continued operation of the HVAC unit, from collecting, from causing a hazard or nuisance, or a combination thereof, as examples.
Outdoor condensing gas furnaces have previously been contemplated and condensate drain lines for such units have been routed to avoid freezing. U.S. Pat. No. 6,684,878 (Ho et al.) illustrates an example. For various reasons, however, prior art outdoor condensing (e.g., gas) furnaces have not successfully been mass produced. Condensing gas furnaces, means and methods of disposing of condensate from gas furnaces, and devices that make such equipment and systems possible for outdoor installations are needed or would be beneficial that are sufficiently reliable, inexpensive, and easy to install and service so as to be practical in a mass-production context. Needs or potential for benefit or improvement exist for methods of manufacturing condensing gas package units, HVAC equipment and HVAC units having condensing furnaces, and systems and buildings having such devices. Other needs or potential for benefit or improvement may also be described herein or known in the HVAC or fossil fuel industries. Room for improvement exists over the prior art in these and other areas that may be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art having studied this document.
These drawings illustrate, among other things, examples of embodiments of the invention. Other embodiments may differ.